


Tell Me Lies

by Peryton



Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: F/F, Heist Wives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 18:17:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18816385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peryton/pseuds/Peryton
Summary: Short ficlet because I recently watched Oceans 8 and ofc I ship Lou and Debbie. Mostly in Lou’s head, second chapter is Debbie’s POV.





	1. Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

You and me, hitting up casinos and pulling cons, promises that Debbie wasn’t going anywhere, that Lou had found her family. These were the first lies that Lou had let herself believe since she left Australia.  

Then Claude Becker happened. Lou saw Debbie getting in too deep with him but Debbie Ocean was never one to listen that anyone could be getting the better of her. That an Ocean wasn’t always ten steps ahead. And so Lou faded into the background, watching Debbie and this scruffy con artist who was nowhere near her league fall in deeper and deeper. 

Lou hadn’t gone to see Debbie in prison, she told herself that it would be better for both of them if she didn’t give the police anything to link the two of them. Lou knew she was lying to herself but sometimes that was all she had, now that Debbie was gone. 

Then she was back. Acting the same as she always did, that cocky attitude and the practiced persona that everything was under control and would work out exactly as Debbie Ocean had anticipated. Lou couldn’t help but fall back into old habits, but she told herself she’d be careful this time. That she wouldn’t let herself drop back into the Debbie Ocean orbit. Lou had been there before, been there for too long knowing there could never be anything more between them, but still hoping.

This time would be different, the first sign of another Claude Becker character and Lou would leave, watching from the outside as Debbie got in deep with someone had been too much once before, Lou didn’t need to see that happen again. But there was no Claude Becker character, instead it was the man himself, the same man who had taken Debbie away from her years before. Who had landed her partner in prison. And still Lou stayed. 

After the heist the rest of the women scattered with their ill-gotten gains. Although no one as far as Lou had expected, Constance and Amita still visited regularly, Constance more to raid Lou’s fridge and Amita seemed to just want some time away from her family. Lou had told both of them on multiple occasions that they both had more than enough cash to do these things themselves, to whatever extent they desired without involving Lou’s loft. But more often than she could count Lou would come home and find the two of them on her couch channel surfing or searching the cupboards for her good liquor. In fact, Lou saw all the women from the heist more than she ever would have anticipated, for the first time Lou started to feel like she had people outside of Debbie Ocean to call family. Not that she would tell them that, Constance was enough of an annoying de facto little sibling without that knowledge.

But while the others showed up and pulled Lou into socialising with them, Debbie hadn’t shown any sign of moving out of Lou’s loft in the first place.

 

Lou woke sometime past midday and stumbled into the living area to find that the loft was mercilessly absent of the kids for once, as much as Lou loved the other women they did turn her space into a madhouse when they were all there, it was crazy how quickly a handful of grown women could cause a low key gathering to descend into drunken carnage.

Lou grabbed herself a coffee and collapsed on the couch Debbie was already occupying, Debbie was drinking a bloody Mary, no doubt in an attempt to stave off the hangover from the impromptu party last night that started when Constance had decided to film herself making cocktails for her youtube channel. The gap between their bodies closed without Lou realising and in between an animal documentary and something about NASA it suddenly became all too much of a domestic setting for Lou’s mental health.

 

“I’d have thought you’d be burning a hole in that 30 mill like the rest of them.” Lou said to Debbie to break the silence between that Lou suddenly found uncomfortable.

“Heist’s not over yet baby.” Debbie answered with a smile  


* * *

 

“How’s it been?”

“What?” Lou asks, eyes narrowing as she tries to work out what Tammy might be playing at, Lou had known this request to meet for coffee on the tail end of Lou coming home from the club wouldn’t have been a purely social call.

“Living with Debbie again.”

“The same.”

Tammy shakes her head “maybe if you two were truthful once in a while Debbie wouldn’t have had to feel the need to concoct such an outlandish plan.” At Lou’s blank stare Tammy rolls her eyes, “she always said she could only pull this job off with you by her side, maybe if she didn’t need to find a reason to get you back so desperately we would have been able to pull some less high-profile jobs that wouldn’t have landed us all in jail for decades if we were caught.”

“I never left.”

“Maybe she didn’t know that.” 

Now it was Lou’s turn to roll her eyes, one thing no one could accuse Debbie Ocean of is being unable to find who she wants. Sure Lou had filled in a few of the gaps in Deb’s roster but even with being out of the circuit for five years Debbie would have been able to find who she needed without her help. She just didn’t need to because Lou had been there. “Besides, I don’t see you complaining now you can afford that warehouse and god knows what to fill it Tam Tam.” Lou said, raising her eyebrows over the top of her coffee cup. 

 

As much as Lou doesn’t want to she can feel herself falling into a routine with Debbie still at her loft. Debbie’s clothes lying around on furniture she doesn’t know whether is hers or Debbie’s anymore. The amount of items Debbie had in storage is staggering, of course they could be new not-particularly-legal acquisitions. Debbie’s scent is pervading the building as much as it always seemed to infiltrate Lou’s senses before Debbie ever left.

Lou knows the danger in ignoring the obvious. That’s how the bad con artists get caught. And Lou was never a bad con artist. But caught between having part of what she wants, and having nothing Lou lies about what this means, about how far she’s already fallen back into bad habits of loving Debbie Ocean. 

But most of all Lou lies to herself that she’s content with how things are. That she doesn’t want more from Debbie.   
  


* * *

 

Against her better judgement Lou settles into life with Debbie, it’s always been the two of them, hatching plans and pulling off jobs. And the old habits are still there. 

Even now with the other six women still a constant part of their lives, and bonded closer than any other group Lou has ever worked with, Lou gravitates towards Debbie, and the others have noticed. Lou and Debbie are always referred to by the others as one, ‘Lou’n’Debbie,’ ‘Debbie’n’Lou’, and if they weren't together the first thing the others would ask was where the missing member was, as if Lou kept permanent tabs on Debbie. That she often _did_ know where the heist mastermind was was just because she paid attention to people. Something that every good con artist did. 

Paying attention to Debbie meant she was one of the first alerted when Debbie changed her usual routine. Debbie started going out more frequently, always at times when the others would usually be otherwise engaged, and if it hadn’t been for Lou's fixation with the brunette she wouldn’t have noticed herself. 

Any questioning of where Debbie had been left Lou none the wiser, Debbie had always been the master of misdirection or giving away enough information that it wasn't until later that you realised you hadn’t learnt anything new. Of course Lou’s susceptibility in being muddled by Debbie Ocean had only seemed to increase since the brunette had been to prison, it took much less for Debbie to get Lou flustered and looking to escape the conversation herself than it ever had before. Which didn't exactly lend itself to a successful interrogation. Lou put it down to the five year gap where she hadn’t been exposed to Debbie’s particular brand of aggressive distraction tactics, anyone would be the same if they weren’t used to facing down Debbie Ocean.

To counteract this Lou tries her best to distance herself, she spends more time at her club than she ever did. Enough that her bar staff start looking nervous and the manager asks if there’s a problem with how she was running the place for Lou. Lou waits for Debbie to pull away, to get itchy feet and need to travel, to come up with another scheme to occupy her mind. Lou doesn't want to be in the same position as last time. When Debbie left and Lou lost everything. So she works to protect herself before the inevitable blow. 

Of course when faced with Debbie Ocean the best laid plans of defence often came unstuck, as Cartier had found out. One evening Debbie stands before Lou dressed in a black dress that clings to every curve. Lou stares up at her from the couch, unable to help drinking in the sight before her. 

“We’re going out.” Debbie announces. 

“Oh?”

“When was the last time you went out?”

“Are you forgetting I own a club?”

“Working doesn’t count.” Debbie says dismissively. “Come on,” Debbie continues when Lou shows no sign of moving, “I feel like I never see you anymore.”

“We literally live together.”

“And you always seem to be at your club.” Debbie arches an eyebrow and waits for Lou to argue but instead the blonde raises her hands in surrender and lets Debbie pull her to her feet, the movement bringing Lou flush against the brunette. Debbie only grins and winks in response to their close proximity and Lou rolls her eyes as she pulls away from the warmth pressed against her, her body mourning the loss as soon as they part. 

They end up at a bar not too far away from Lou’s club. Debbie had argued if they had gone to Lou’s place the blonde would have ended up working and Debbie hadn’t brought her out to work more. 

Lou is seated in a booth along the outskirts of the large space, the low lighting and cosy feel of the booth counteract the groups of other people laughing at the bar or at other tables and make this seem more intimate than Lou would like. Debbie watches Lou as though she’s figuring out a particularly tricky problem that had arisen in a job before her practiced charming smile smoothes over her features and the brunette offers to get them drinks. 

Lou’s eyes follow Debbie on her journey to the bar, unsure whether it’s just her imagination or the brunette is swaying her hips more than usual as she walks away. Lou looks away annoyed with herself, but the magnetic pull of Debbie Ocean has Lou looking back in time to see Debbie conversing with a dark-haired stranger. Everything about her posture and the few smiles and looks Lou can catch from her vantage point screams ‘flirting’ and Lou is transfixed on the brunette for another reason. 

Lou’s hands clench under the table, small crescent imprints forming on her skin even while her face remains her unaffected public façade.

Debbie soon comes back with two drinks and slides one in front of Lou.

“What line you use?” Lou asks, eyes still on the attractive clean shaven man at the bar who had yet to look away from Debbie. 

“Oh, nothing really, just suggested we were in need of a drink.”

“That’s it?”

“Why do you care what I said?” Debbie her eyes holding Lou’s in some unspoken challenge that Lou didn’t understand. 

“I just want to know if he’s going to come over here in a minute expecting something.”

Debbie stares at Lou for a moment in silence before her eyes drop to the table between them. “I’m offended you think I’d leave myself open like that.” And Debbie’s flirty, smirking persona was back, whatever glimpse Lou had seen of what was going on in the brunette’s head had vanished. “Since when do you care what we say to chumps like that anyway?”

“Guess I’m just getting sick of the lies.” Lou replies, her fingers toying with the glass in front of her.

“We lie to everyone.” Debbie says, Lou fights the urge to look away from her knowing gaze. 

“Yeah, maybe that’s why I’m sick of them.” Lou downs the rest of her drink and the empty glass hits the table with a thud.

“I’m glad you’re having this sudden attack of conscience after we pulled off the Met heist.” Debbie laughs, “A con artist who won’t lie is going to be tough to plan around.”

“Let me know if I’ll be included in these plans.” Lou pushes the glass away and slides out of the booth, standing by the table for a moment, still caught by Debbie Ocean without her even having to do anything.

“What?” Debbie’s brow furrows in confusion, a spark of what looks like panic in her eyes as she looks up at Lou standing beside her.

“Don’t worry, I’d never tell your secrets to anyone.” Lou says, her voice sounding detached to her own ears.

“Lou I was joking, all the honest work you’ve been doing at your club has clearly messed with your ability to have fun.” Debbie says, a smile playing on the edge of her lips. “You know I tell you everything.”

“You didn’t tell me about Becker’s part in the met job until you had to.”

“I did tell you though.”

“Because you _had_ to.” Lou stresses the word again, “because if you’d lied about your fall guy you knew I’d find out eventually.”

“We said once we’d never lie to each other.” Debbie replies, holding eye contact with an intensity that made it impossible for Lou to look away. 

“We said a lot of things.” 

“That doesn’t mean they aren’t true.”

Lou shrugs, “maybe once, but it’s been a long time Deb. We’ve both changed. Hell, you’ve been to prison.”

“Still.” Debbie says, her carefree tone at odds with the intensity in her eyes as she holds Lou’s gaze.

“You just said we lie to everyone, why should I even trust that you’re telling me the truth now?”

“Yeah, but you’re... you’re Lou. You're not everyone.” Debbie replies, her brow furrowing as she tries to follow what has made Lou snap at her.

“I know the con.” Lou laughs bitterly, “the key to lying convincingly is believing it yourself. Well, maybe those little lies we tell ourselves aren’t good enough for me anymore.” Lou moves away from the table before Debbie can call her back, but the brunette is silent as she leaves. Lou starts to tell herself that that’s for the best, that she doesn’t want to be forced back into keeping up whatever pretence Debbie Ocean wants anymore but Lou cuts off the thought as suddenly as she changes direction, heading to her club instead of back to the loft.

 


	2. Never Going Back Again

The plan had never changed since she got out of prison. There was no way in hell Debbie was going to go back to that, not ever.

Some things needed to be taken care of first though, and Debbie wouldn’t be an Ocean if she wasn’t going to pull off an extravagant job along the way. Prison had had the benefit of long hours in which to plan the perfect heist, every part had been meticulously thought over, every potential choice made by others and the consequences planned around. Well, there was one person Debbie possibly couldn’t plan for, the years away had shown that she wasn’t the best at predicting them. But that wasn’t going to stop an Ocean going for what they wanted.

 

The met gala had gone without a hitch, Debbie finally let herself relax after all the diamonds had been returned by the gang and everyone had a glass of champagne in their hands toasting their success.

That wasn’t the end of it though, Debbie had had a lot of time in prison to plan, she had lost too much after Claude Becker had framed her, too much time, and Debbie never was much good at losing. Just because the met job was done didn’t mean Debbie was finished. They still had to fence the jewels, without being caught with famous diamonds. And then there was the other part of the plan... 

Debbie started putting things together, it started out with research. She had devised the main part of the plan in prison but Debbie would admit that this wasn’t part of her skill set. Which meant research. And calling in more than a few favours she had kept for years. But Debbie knew it would be worth it, and this was her only option as she didn't want the others to know, not yet anyway. Not until everything was set. So Debbie usually left the loft early in the morning to avoid suspicion, or picked times she knew the majority of the gang would be busy so her absence wouldn’t be seen if they had an impromptu gathering round Lou’s loft. Sometimes when she returned the women were there but Debbie was pretty sure no one noticed her absence. 

After a few weeks passed Debbie thought this might have been the longest she had been stuck on a particular problem, she was running out of ways to approach it, or contacts to call on, and she was starting to wonder if the whole approach was too much. Debbie sighed, she carefully put away the list of potential contacts and lists for the job and decided a break was in order. 

Lou was sprawled on the couch, even lazing at home and watching netflix she always looked so put together and in control of everything. Debbie remembered when that wasn’t always the case though, when the police had come and Claude... but that was why Debbie was doing this. Putting him in jail wasn’t enough, not enough for what had been taken.

_____

Debbie had managed to convince Lou to come out for drinks with her, the two of them were at a local bar. Everything had been going well, well Debbie had thought it was anyway, Debbie had returned with drinks for the two of them and they were doing their usual easy banter, when Lou’s mood shifted.

Debbie looked up at Lou unsure of what the blonde was saying, part of her wanted to grab Lou’s hand and hold on, stop her from leaving. But whatever had just happened between them had frozen Debbie and her fingers could only twitch against the glass on the table, the condensation making her hands damp as she watched Lou walk away.

Debbie headed back to Lou’s loft half in a daze, her mind still on the events that had happened between her and Lou, going over everything trying to find the flaw in her plan, the error that had made Lou leave. As long as Debbie had known her Lou had never been one for talking about her feelings, content to go along with whatever crazy plan Debbie had concocted with nothing but an eyebrow raise.

Debbie waited for Lou to come back. The hours passed and she lost the shoes on the couch, more waiting led to the dress being changed to something she could actually breathe in. It didn’t look like the dress had done its job anyway, maybe Debbie should return it. Well, steal something else instead of it. Debbie didn’t know what time she had fallen asleep, her dying phone said it was 6AM and a quick search of the loft confirmed that Lou hadn’t come home last night.

* * *

 

Lou was avoiding her. Debbie was starting to think everything she had done since getting out of prison was going to fall apart on her, if she couldn’t even get Lou to stay in the same room as her for more than five minutes how could she complete the next part of her plan? Debbie’s whole life had been about projecting what marks wanted to see, a damsel in distress, a woman who would be easy to control, someone who was only there to serve their own purposes, and that’s all they saw in her. Until Deb had taken them for everything they had. So now when this wasn’t about a mark Debbie didn’t know how to approach it. The years learning how to con people had meant Debbie’s true feelings were always hidden until she could use some facet of them to get what she wanted, she would be the first to admit she wasn’t good at the truth. So instead of talking to Lou she did what she always did, she planned. Debbie planned out what to do, and this time she mined the other women for information, without them realising the true intention of her conversation of course-well, except for Tammy. Debbie should have known better than to ask Tammy for advice, after the other blonde had given her all too inciteful a suggestion Debbie had shut the conversation down and moved onto Constance, who had been very little help, but probably more Lou’s speed than Daphne’s ideas.

 

“This must have taken weeks to plan.” Lou said staring at the gleaming motorbike stood in the driveway.

“Months actually. But I’d been starting it before I... messed up in that bar.”

“This is a hell of an apology present Ocean.”

“I thought I had a lot to make up for.”

“Plus it doesn’t hurt that it’s crazy expensive and rare.” Lou said with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you think?” Debbie asked, her eyes tracking Lou’s expression, hoping that would give her some indication of what was going on inside Lou’s head as she stood there much more nervous than she’d been pulling off the met job.

“I don’t know.” Lou leans against the wall in a way that would make anyone else look defeated but on Lou she looks like she doesn’t give a damn, that whatever anyone threw at her she could shake it off with a quip and a raised eyebrow. Untouchable. That was how Debbie had always seen her before. But Debbie had learned that appearances were deceiving.

“Is this about Claude?”

Lou laughs at that but Debbie can’t hear the humour in it. “It always comes back to that bastard doesn’t it.”

Debbie walked up to Lou “He put me in jail. But he got between us too.”

“It wasn’t just him who did that.”

“I got five years, but that wasn’t the worst that he did. We lost more than those years.”

“You’re a big girl Deb, no one made you do it.” Lou replied flatly.

“I know. I know it’s my fault this happened. If I’d been smarter, if-”

“You Oceans and your hatred of losing. You’re out of prison now, but you risked it all to bring your vendetta against Becker into the met job.”

“What was I meant to do, he took everything.” Debbie runs her hand through her hair frustrated, the calm she usually kept so well during the most stressful situations, jobs going wrong, getting injured on the job, leaving her now as she talked to Lou.

“You could have not run a job in a job!” Lou’s voice rises and Debbie sees the usually composed woman ruffled for the first time in years. Since the original problem with Becker had arisen. “You talk about wanting to be smarter five years back and preventing all this, but you could have thrown it all away again, just to get back at him for putting you in jail.”

“No, I don’t mean with getting caught. I mean you. Us. If I’d been smarter I would have realised I had what I wanted before I was stuck in a cell.”

“You can’t say this and expect I’ll forget it all, that we can go back to how it was-”

“I don’t. I don’t expect you to forgive me, I ruined it between us. And… well I was kind of hoping that this,” Debbie waves her hand at the bike, “would have clued you in on the fact that I don’t want things to go back to how they were. Not exactly anyway.”

Lou raises her eyebrows at Debbie, her blue eyes cutting into the brunette. “Are you propositioning me Deborah?”

Debbie’s breath catches but the brunette does her best to cover it, “little slow on the uptake aren’t you? What did you think this was all about?”

“I guess I do have that diamond now.” Lou replies thoughtfully.

Debbie laughs and the tension shrinks along with the distance between them. Debbie runs her hands carefully down Lou’s vest, her eyes following their path before flicking back up to see Lou’s eyes stormy and fixed on her intently.

“We have lot of diamonds now. Nothing but the best for my girl.” Debbie smirked up at Lou before leaning further into the blonde.

“You know I could have been convinced with something a lot less elaborate than the Met heist, not to mention dangerous.”

“No, you couldn’t, I know you Lou.”

The warmth of Lou’s hands danced across Debbie’s sides until her grip grew firmer, sliding down Debbie’s skin and causing goosebumps to form in their path as Lou’s hands rested on Debbie’s hips and tugged her closer. But Debbie was done with the teasing, she pulled on Lou’s hair pulling the blonde’s lips to hers.

 

Debbie knows things aren’t perfect between them, maybe they never will be, but it’s a start. The plan had never changed, Deb had lost Lou once, she was never going back to a life without Lou again.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written on my phone when I really should have been paying attention to real life humans so there is likely mistakes I missed when I posted.


End file.
